Barren

What I would have entered in Memoirs of the Dead had I been participating in this forum at that time.

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Stretch. Yawn. Has the day passed already?

The other Makuta think me odd for enjoying sleep so long after we evolved beyond the need for it. It's only because the day is so terribly long if you don't sleep. I've turned noctural, unlike the rest. It helps me enjoy the shadows.

Where are you now, Bitil? Where'd the exploits of the previous night take you? Some kind of hut...Oh yes, that village on the first of the islands. The Western Southern Islands, that's your territory. You marched in just as the day was about to close, woke them all up, and demanded they serve you a feast. Morning meal for them, evening meal of sorts for you. Then you passed out and slept the day away.

Time to get up. Another night of useless, unproductive patrol to do. Out the door, into the main street of the village—oh look, some Matoran are pointing and whispering at me. And now they're trying to pretend they weren't. I ought to disintegrate one of them to teach them a lesson—no, Bitil, you have to hold off on that. If you start wasting them willy-nilly, eventually you'll have no one left to obey you. Or you might have Teridax breathing down your neck. If he hasn't severed it first. Hey, that's clever.

It's a nice little dictatorship I've concocted here; I've heard Gorast has done something similar on the Tren Krom Peninsula. But it's kind of pointless when you only get to rule five villages over two islands, with a population of maybe two hundred Matoran among them all. The rules are simple: don't attract my attention, and you live.

Goodness, are those Matoran following me? That's enough. I turn around. I don't see them, but I know they have to be behind that barrel sitting in the village's main street. I extend my hand.

I could unleash so many powers from that hand. I could make them believe each was a vicious Rahi intent on killing the other. I could electrocute them, suffocate them, incinerate them, shatter them into a million pieces.

But I don't. I'm feeling unusually merciful today. I hear nothing more as I leave the village.

Now I'm on the shore of the island, gazing out into the silver sea. What a magnificent universe I live in. Only I got the worst part of it. The part beyond all the charts, where nobody but me, the caretaker of it all, goes. Oh, you've explored it all, you softie. You've been as far south in the universe as you can go, the foot of your island chain. There was a door there, a door sideways along the ground. But it wouldn't open.

Miserix's assignments were total junk. Teridax got what everybody wanted, Metru Nui. Mutran and a couple of others got the Southern Continent and then did nothing about it. I don't even think anyone but Gorast is actually involved in watching over their realms, but what do I know, I'm stuck on these islands. Why'd we even maintain the assignments after we deposed Miserix?

Patrol. To patrol. That village looked okay. Their Turaga doesn't care if I show up once in a while; he was once a Toa of the Green and is too busy maintaining his garden.

In rapid succession, I teleport to the other four villages and inquire around. There's two more on this island, the northernmost of the Southern Islands. Then there's one on the second island, and a house where three Matoran live. Why they'd choose to live there is anyone's guess, but most certainly not my concern.

And that's it. It's only been an hour, there's a lot more night to go, and your duty for the day is done.

If only Teridax would let me go to Destral. I'm capable. I can make Kraata like the rest of you. But no, I'm so dangerous and need to be kept away on these barren islands. I could head to Destral myself, of course, but I'd be teleported back immediately. They "need me here". Bah! I could come here once a milennia and nothing would change. Indeed, my more frequent presence has caused some Matoran to start "visiting" their friends on the Southern Continent. Then they don't come back. What do I care, fewer of their annoying little faces to deal with.

I think I'll jump to all the other islands today. See what nothing their is. Next stop and next island in the chain, Artidax. Come to think of it, I haven't stopped there beyond a cursory glance since...actually, since Teridax's rebellion. I'll give it a full explore today. Teleport...

The island's changed since I last saw it. It's...somehow darker. It's rocky and barren, like every other island in the chain but parts of the first two, but it seems rather shadowed. I like it.

Oh gosh—caught by a giant hand, can't breathe—oh, wait. Shattering power, and I'm safe. Should I leave now? Evidently I'm in danger. Nah, a Makuta can fight his way out of anything. When Toa aren't around. The others may think me a dangerous fool, but I admit our weaknesses.

Search around for a while. Nothing much to be found that might have triggered that—wait, there's a tunnel in the mountain? Who would have bored that?

I venture cautiously down the tunnel. I step over the vine tripwire that nobody thought to conceal properly. I could have done a far better job of...whatever this is protecting, if only the brotherhood allowed me to.

A rickety bridge. Ah, I see those branches below are actually insects. And they don't look happy. I try to control them, but a more powerful will won't allow me. Hmm...

I activate my limited invulnerability power and march through the swarm, which is now buzzing around me. They're biting and scratching at my armour, doing no damage.

The power wears off as I leave the nest and enter a short tunnel that opens into an enormous chamber. Hmm, they're not following. There's a huge chamber at the end of this tunnel...and I see why they're not following.

..."Miserix?"

His shadow hand is extended from his chest, and he's absorbing some hideous creature into his substance. In seconds, it is overcome. Only then does he notice me.

"Bitil!" He says it with a sarcastic warmness. "I haven't seen you since you joined my lieutenant in deposing me. You were the first to join him, in fact. I'd kill you in an instant, but the effort of absorbing my last guard has rather tired me. You have about five minutes before I go from reasonable to unreasonable and you go from alive to dead."

"How...I thought...didn't Spiriah and Krika kill you?"

"Teridax told them to, indeed. But Krika, that weakling, he imprisoned me here."

I'm in awe. Miserix is a legend, a memory of a time long forgotten when the Makuta were benevolent.

"I...you swore you would be avenged, and that's considerably more easy if you're still around."

His eyes flash. Laser beams strike me and throw me across the room.

"I grow weary of the company of a traitor. Get out before I hit you with worse, and I will forget you were ever here."

I quickly teleport to the first island in the chain.

I have been assigned to watch over Miserix. I and Krika, and maybe Spiriah, are the only ones who know he's alive. This is such precious knowledge...

Someday, somehow, I will find a way to make myself a part of this. When the plan goes into effect, perhaps I will find a way to free him. Then the others will respect me.

I look out at the village, at the Matoran who are still whispering and pointing, never dreaming of what lies two islands to the south.